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Gramps

08/10/2012

Last week, my niece, Hannah, and I went to spend the day with my grandfather before we left for our week-long trip to Florida to pick up my daughter. It's always a pleasure to spend the day with him. We did our usual run of going out to eat Chinese (Grandpa loves to go to the buffet in town), grocery shopping, bill paying and getting the mail, and Grandpa's newest obsession is to go to the little Village Scoop Shop in Colchester Village. It's not one of those "creemee" ice cream joints with soft ice cream in weird flavors. This place is hardcore. They have REAL ice cream. The hard kind with amazing flavors and toppings and it tastes like real ice cream. He usually gets a chocolate sundae with marshmallow topping, hot chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and a cherry. I've fallen in love with the peanut butter fudge ice cream. It has ribbons of fudge through it along with pieces of peanut butter cups. Hannah was going to get a creemee (they only serve vanilla, chocolate, or twist in creemee flavors) but when she tried my ice cream, she changed her mind. She got Reese's Pieces on top. I think I'll have to add those the next time I go.

Ice creams were perfect on a hot day. My grandfather asked Hannah if she wanted to get seconds and she said she was full. I honestly think that if someone went up for seconds, Grandpa would totally have gone through with it for himself, too. The only reason he didn't was probably because he didn't want to look like a piggy!

I have always been close to all of my grandparents and I think it's so important for my kids to be, as well. I believe the same thing of my niece and nephew so I'm glad that Hannah was able to go along.

I had to take these pictures of my Grandpa's creations in his bathroom. They always crack me up and there's always something new to look at. He's a very particular man, especially now that he's gotten older. When I clean his bathroom, he makes sure to let me know that I CAN'T knock his "castle" over. He doesn't use the garden tub behind this "castle" which is a good thing because I can't imagine having to put that up again every time he uses the tub. He uses paper towel and toilet paper rolls, cotton balls, and his own hair.

Yes, you read that right. He uses his own hair. Now that he's getting older, he loses more of it when he combs it and he also thins it himself using his scissors. He has such thick and full hair. Always has. Doesn't it figure that the guys always get the better hair than the women do?

See all those little gray balls? Those are made from his hair. He rolls it together in his palms until they're as symetrical as he can get them. I joke with him and tell him that it keeps him busy and off the streets at night so he doesn't feel like he needs to turn tricks. Those hair balls (my mom and I laugh every time we say that) are very light and so round. He makes them in different sizes and then places them in order from smallest to largest. See that crock in the back? My brother bought that for Grandpa one year except he's got so many gray hairs now that he's run out of room to put them in the jar.

This is the newest of his creations and literally made me laugh out loud when I saw it. He usually has his combs and scissors set up in a particular pattern. Even the scissor blades match the diamond tile on his counter but it was the sign above them that really made me laugh. He has such a creative and brilliant mind and he's always been one for quips and puns. The acutal screw in place of the word, "screw," was genius.

We may not be climbing mountains or going bungee jumping, but life is always an adventure when I'm with my Gramps.

07/18/2012

If you saw this sweet older gentleman (that looks a lot like a human version of Papa Smurf), wouldn't you want to go for a walk with him or take him home to dote over?

This is my Grandpa. He's 83 years old and has a little trouble with his memory and needs some help here and there since he no longer drives. I have the privilege of spending a day a week with him taking him to his appointments, going out for lunch, doing grocery runs, and anything else we dream up.

He has a childlike wonder of nature and chocolate ice cream that I find so endearing. I count it a blessing to have these days with my Gramps.

After his doctor's appointment, he asked me if I wanted to go to the ice cream parlor. I didn't even realize there was one close by. This man loves chocolate ice cream unlike anything I've seen before. I've never even seen a child that loves ice cream as much as he does. We drove over and he ordered a 4-scoop cone that he had to put into a dish because we were afraid it was going to topple. I found it hilarious that he kept adding more ice cream from the dish to the cone to keep it going.

There was no one else in the parlor....it seems we came at the right time. He said that the place is usually overflowing with people. We sat in the air conditioned foyer and had a friendly debate over which ice cream was better - his chocolate or my peanut butter fudge. Neither of us was going to budge so we agreed to disagree.

After we had our ice cream, he asked if I wanted to see Colchester Pond. I'd never been there before but he's talked about how lovely it was in the past and we were close by so I said, "Why not?" We ended up taking the "scenic route," which is short-hand for "drive 20 minutes on five different roads to go to a place that we should have found in 5 minutes." Poor Gramps, he had trouble remembering which roads I needed to take even though he'd directed my parents there the day before without one missed turn.

He felt really bad about having me take the "long way around," and even said, "I didn't think I'd ever get this dumb." I told him that he's not dumb, he just has a little trouble remembering every now and then. I also told him that it was such a pretty drive and it was nice to spend the time together. That made him feel less "dumb."

He is such a lover of nature and I caught him picking some wildflowers....

...which he put in his shirt pocket as a faux boutonniere. It went well with his choice of shirt. He said he was going to pick some for me but it started sprinkling at that moment and the sky looked like it could open up at any minute so we headed back to the truck.

This was one of my favorite outings with Grandpa so far. He's in his natural element when he's outside. I definitely think that my son, Zach, gets a lot of his love for nature from my grandfather.

On my way home, the sky DID open up and the power throughout South Burlington and Shelburne blew out when a huge lightning strike came down. All of the traffic lights were dark right at rush hour. Fortunately people were courteous and treating intersections as if they were 4-way stops without lights and taking turns, but it was a long drive home.

And now it's time for me to stick my nose in my textbook and get some homework done. Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!